Archive for December, 2011|Monthly archive page

The last thing I remember before the riot police surrounded me was punching a man who had groped me. Who the hell thinks of copping a feel as you’re taking shelter from bullets? Another man tried to protect him by standing between us, but I was enraged, and kept going back for more. A third man was trying to snatch my smartphone out of my other hand. He was the one who had pulled my friend Maged Butter and me into an abandoned shop – supposedly for safety’s sake – and he wouldn’t let go of my hand. Read the rest of this entry »

The bursting of citizens onto the streets of Tunisia and Egypt early in 2011 and the ensuing overthrow of the dictators Ben Ali and Mubarak has attracted widespread international attention. Concurrent with these north African uprisings, but largely ignored by the mainstream international media, there have been growing protests, demonstrations and actions by citizens in numerous other countries across the continent. It is not possible to recount the entirety of this ‘African awakening’ here. However, these examples provide a flavour of a continent-wide phenomenon which, looked at as a whole, provides hope for the future, as well as insight into how that future is being created today. Read the rest of this entry »

Here goes my list of Top Ten bloggers, politicians and journalists who are related to the “Arab Spring” of 2011. I can’t stand the term “Arab Spring” but for the sake of Africa Is A Country’s 10×10 theme, let’s use it as an ironic reference. Read the rest of this entry »

We met every afternoon for two weeks in N’Djamena. After the midday prayer, I would pick him up in a taxi at the shop he hoped to turn into a laundry. We ate fish and rice in my hotel room – he would have been recognised outside – and he just talked, beginning at the beginning.

I was born in 1986 in Saudi Arabia, in Medina, the Prophet’s city. My parents came from North Chad – I don’t know exactly where. Read the rest of this entry »

The woman is young, and slim, and fair. She lies on her back surrounded by four soldiers, two of whom are dragging her by the arms raised above her head. She’s unresisting – maybe she’s fainted; we can’t tell because we can’t see her face. She’s wearing blue jeans and trainers. But her top half is bare: we can see her torso, her tummy, her blue bra, her bare delicate arms. Surrounding this top half, forming a kind of black halo around it, is the abaya, the robe she was wearing that has been ripped off and that tells us that she was wearing a hijab. Read the rest of this entry »

On hearing the news of the passing of the Nigerian Same Sex Marriage Bill, 2011 (the SSM Bill)– which seeks to criminalize anyone who either enters into a same sex marriage or witnesses, supports or aids such a marriage– my reaction was…well, I was too numb to immediately react. I could only think about the miserable state my country is in. But did I really expect anything different? Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past few weeks, world leaders, technocrats, and NGOs descended upon Durban for the 17th Conference of Parties (dubbed the Conference of Polluters by its critics). After 17 years of meetings to address climate change, the lack of action from world leaders clearly shows that the biggest polluting nations not only lack the political will to address the issue, but also seem to be actively carrying out the anti-environmental agenda of the largest corporations on this planet. Read the rest of this entry »